Kitap 22
15.28
Many and great things there are in that land which it is worth while to see; of these it will be in place to describe a few. Everywhere temples of vast size have been erected. The Pyramids have been enrolled among the seven wonders of the world,The lists of these vary; see Gellius, I, p. 10, note 2, L.C.L. and of their slow and difficult construction the historian Herodotus tells us.ii. 124. These are towers higher than any others which can be erected by human hands, extremely broad at the base and tapering to very pointed summits.
15.29
The figure pyramid has that name among geometers because it narrows into a cone after the manner of fire, which in our language is called πῦρ; for their size, as they mount to a vast height, gradually becomes slenderer, and also they cast no shadows at all, in accordance with a principle of mechanics.This, of course, is true only when the sun stands directly over their tops.
15.30
There are also subterranean fissures and winding passages called syringes, σύριγγες, xvii. 7, 11, note. which, it is said, those acquainted with the ancient rites, since they had fore-knowledge that a deluge was coming, and feared that the memory of the ceremonies might be destroyed, dug in the earth in many places with great labour; and on the walls of these caverns they carved many kinds of birds and beasts, and those countless forms of animals which they called hierographic writing.Described in xvii. 4, 8 ff.
